Two former IGPs, DIG to be arrested soon

Former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa leaving the Colombo Magistrate Court after being enlarged on bail in the case filed by the Bribery Commission which said that Rajapaksa and six others had committed an offence by permitting the Avant Garde Maritime Services to operate a floating armoury causing a Rs.11.4 billion financial loss to the government. Pic by Dimuthu Premaratne

Two retired IGPs and a former DIG would be arrested soon on charges of hiding evidence, shelving investigations and destroying evidence connected to the murder of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickremathunga, Police headquarters sources said yesterday.

The CID had already questioned them several times and recorded statements from them, police sources said.

An IGP and the DIG had been accused of hiding a note book belonging to Wickrematunga. It had contained the names of the persons who had threatened the editor with death, police said.

The other IGP had been accused of handing over the investigations on Wickremathunga’s death from the CID to the Terrorists Investigation Division.

Sources said investigations conducted so far had determined that the three former officers had sabotaged the investigations into the killing of the editor.

The charges against those retired senior officers were of a very serious nature and they would soon be taken into custody, sources added.